The Washington Press Corps is complaining because Donald Trump has threatened to open up the White House Press Room to bloggers and podcasters. How dare he! Of course he dares. Why shouldn’t he?
There are two things the news people seem to forget.
First, here’s what the media and political insiders forget about Donald Trump.
He’s the same guy who body slammed Vince McMahon on the ring apron at WWE Wrestlemania 23. After the bell, Stone Cold, Bobby Lashley, and the Once and Future President Trump teamed up to shave McMahon’s head in the ring at Detroit’s Ford Field in front of 80,000 live fans and a pay per view audience of 1.2 million.
The second thing they seem to forget is how their own industry has changed over the past 65 years.
In April of 1962, Walter Cronkite replaced Douglas Edwards as the host of the CBS “Evening News”. Cronkite quickly became one of the most trusted men in America and signed off after each 15 minute daily broadcast with “and that’s all there is.” A year and a half later, realizing that 15 minutes wasn’t enough time to truly report “all there is”, CBS expanded its evening program to a half hour. Cronkite continued to sign off with “and that’s all there is.”
Seriously? A half hour to tell us everything that happened in the world in 30 minutes, not allowing for commercials? How did they do that?
Easy. Some editor somewhere in the New York office decided what you and I and the rest of the country needed to know.
Need more evidence that 15 minutes wasn’t enough? In 1980, Ted Turner changed how news was reported when he founded 24-hour non-stop news channel CNN.
Cronkite was replaced by Dan Rather in 1981. Rather continued as a solo anchor until March 2005. During the last few months, Rather and CBS News were hit with questions from a new thing called “bloggers.” These “bloggers” had the audacity to state that Rather and CBS had used forged documents in their reports on President George W Bush’s Air National Guard records.
It turned out the bloggers were right, CBS was wrong, and Dan Rather was fired.
What else did Rather, and maybe Cronkite before him, and the networks get wrong?
In May of 1971 one of my brother’s classmates was shot and killed on graduation night. This was a big national news story because it was the first graduating class at Drew High School after Judge Keady ordered full desegregation. At least one national news network reported that she was the valedictorian and was shot on the school steps with her diploma still in her hand. She was shot in front of a café several hours after the graduation ceremony ended. Unfortunately, there was no alternative news source to counter the inflammatory version put out by the “that’s all there is” crowd.
One of the loudest complaints about Trump’s plan is that podcasters might be allowed into White House press conferences, and some more traditional news outlets might be excluded. Why shouldn’t this happen?
After all, MSNBC’s primetime audience is a little more than 600,000. CNN attracts a little less than 400,000 people during primetime.
The New York Times has a daily circulation of about 8.8 million.
Joe Rogan’s interview with Donald Trump has been played 51 million times. His Elon Musk episode is at 69 million and counting.
I realize I’m comparing apples to camels, but the point remains- the news world is changing. People are more and more often getting their news from non-traditional sources. Many don’t trust traditional news media, often with good reason. Maybe it’s time to let non-traditional media into the press room.
If I was a member of the White House Correspondents Association, I’d take President-Elect Trump seriously. I’d be aware that space is limited, and I might be the next one out the door.
After all, the man who slammed Vince McMahon is a man capable of keeping his promises.
